How business banking differs from personal banking

Business banking is the set of accounts, deposits, cards and finance that banks offer to an entity carrying on a business rather than to an individual. A sole trader, a partnership, a company and the trustee of a trading trust can all hold business products, and each structure is assessed and documented differently. An ABN is the usual starting point, and a company or trust also brings its ACN, trust deed and the identification its bank requires for its directors, trustees, beneficial owners and signatories.

The products line up against three jobs a business needs its bank to do:

• Moving money. A business transaction account receives customer payments, pays suppliers, staff and the ATO, and links to accounting software. Trust accounts do the same job for money a business holds on behalf of clients.
• Holding surplus cash. Business savings accounts keep money at call, and business term deposits fix a rate for a set period on money that can be locked away.
• Funding the business. Credit and charge cards cover day-to-day spending, overdrafts cover short-term gaps, business loans fund larger purchases and property, and equipment finance and leasing pay for vehicles and machinery over their working life.

Each of these is published by Australian banks under the Consumer Data Right, the same open data standard behind the banking and energy rates on CompareThat. The business feeds carry product names, rates, fees, features and eligibility rules, which is what this guide and the guides it links to are written from.

A business transaction account is the everyday operating account. The main differences between accounts are the fee model, the transaction allowance and how the account connects to the rest of the business’s systems.

Fee models fall into three broad groups. Some accounts charge nothing to keep and include unlimited electronic transactions. Others charge a monthly account-keeping fee in exchange for a bundle of included transactions. A third group charges per transaction, which suits a business with very few. Cash and cheque handling is where fees usually concentrate: branch deposits, cheque deposits and over-the-counter withdrawals often carry a charge even on accounts that are otherwise free.

Beyond fees, the features banks publish for business accounts include card access for staff, PayID and real-time NPP payments, bill payment, notifications, digital wallets and a relationship manager. Accounting software feeds and multi-user access with separate authorisation levels are often the features that decide the choice for a business with more than one person handling payments.

Regulated trust accounts are a separate category for solicitors, real estate agents, conveyancers and other businesses required by state law to hold client money apart from their own. They are offered only by authorised deposit-taking institutions approved for the purpose, and interest on many of them is paid to a statutory fund rather than to the business.

The full picture is in the guide to business transaction accounts, and current accounts are compared on the Business Transaction Accounts page.

Surplus business cash is held in the same two kinds of account as personal savings. A business savings account pays a variable rate and keeps the money at call, while a business term deposit fixes the rate for a set term in exchange for giving up access.

Many business savings accounts pay a flat ongoing rate rather than a bonus that depends on monthly conditions, because a business’s deposits and withdrawals rarely follow the regular pattern a bonus condition assumes. Term deposits work the same way for a business as for an individual: a fixed rate for a fixed term, notice of up to 31 days to withdraw early with a reduction to the interest paid, and a rollover at maturity unless instructions say otherwise.

Interest on both is assessable income of the entity that holds the account.

Business cards come in two forms that work differently. A business credit card has a set limit and lets the balance be carried from month to month, with interest charged on what is carried after the interest-free period. A charge card often has no pre-set spending limit, is built to be paid in full each statement period, and on many cards charges late payment fees rather than interest when it is not, though some add a facility to carry part of the balance at an interest rate.

Within both forms there is a further split between cards for small businesses, where the owner often applies and may be personally liable, and corporate cards issued to employees of a larger organisation under a company-level facility. Corporate programs add purchasing cards, travel accounts and meeting cards, which are built for expense control more than for rewards.

The guide to business credit cards and charge cards sets out the differences in liability, fees, rewards and expense controls, and current cards are on the Business Credit Cards table.

Business lending covers a wider range of structures than personal lending. The main ones published in bank feeds are:

• Term loans, a fixed amount repaid over a set term, with a variable or fixed rate and principal-and-interest or interest-only repayments. Secured term loans use commercial property, residential property or business assets as security.
• Commercial property loans, term loans to buy or refinance offices, shops, warehouses and other commercial premises, usually at lower loan-to-value ratios than a home loan.
• Overdrafts and lines of credit, a limit linked to an account or facility that the business draws on and repays as cash flow allows, with interest on the amount drawn and, on many, a line fee on the approved limit.
• Bank bill and market rate loans, larger facilities priced at a margin over a market reference rate that resets with each drawdown period.
• SMSF commercial property loans, limited recourse loans that let a self-managed super fund buy business premises under the borrowing rules for super funds.
• Bank guarantees, an undertaking from the bank to pay a third party, most often a landlord, if the business does not meet its obligations, usually secured by a cash deposit or property.

The guide to business loans and overdrafts covers how each is priced, what security lenders take, and which fees apply. Current products are listed on the Business Loans page, with Commercial Property Loans, Business Overdrafts and SMSF Loans each on a page of their own.

Vehicles, machinery, technology and fit-outs are usually financed with products designed around the asset rather than with a general business loan. The asset itself is the security, and the structure decides who owns it during the term, how GST is claimed and what happens at the end.

A novated lease is a related arrangement for employees rather than businesses: the employer, the employee and the financier sign a three-way agreement and the lease payments come out of the employee’s salary package. The guide to equipment finance and leasing covers each structure in detail, and current products are listed on the Equipment Finance page.

Because business credit sits largely outside the National Credit Code, the protections that matter most to a business customer come from other sources.

1. The Banking Code of Practice. Banks that subscribe to the code extend its small business protections to customers below its size thresholds. Many customer-owned banks, credit unions and building societies subscribe instead to the Customer Owned Banking Code of Practice, which has its own small business protections. Under the 2025 code, in force since 28 February 2025, a small business customer has annual turnover under $10 million, fewer than 100 full-time equivalent employees and less than $5 million in total debt to all credit providers, up from $3 million under the previous code. The code covers matters such as notice before a loan is called in, guarantor protections and financial difficulty.
2. Unfair contract terms. Since 9 November 2023, unfair terms in standard form small business contracts are unlawful and attract penalties. For financial products a small business is one with fewer than 100 employees or turnover under $10 million, and the protection applies to contracts with an upfront price of up to $5 million.
3. The Australian Financial Complaints Authority. AFCA takes complaints from small businesses with fewer than 100 employees about credit facilities of up to $6.3 million, a limit it indexes every three years, as well as about deposit accounts, cards and payments.
4. The Financial Claims Scheme. Business deposits at authorised deposit-taking institutions incorporated in Australia are guaranteed up to $250,000 per account holder, per institution, on the same terms as personal deposits.

The figures that separate business products are similar to those on the personal side, with fees and features weighted more heavily because a business uses its accounts more intensively.

• Transaction accounts: the monthly fee, the transaction allowance, cash and cheque fees, and how the account connects to accounting software and payment tools.
• Savings and term deposits: the ongoing rate rather than any introductory or conditional rate, access to the money, and the deposit guarantee position for each entity.
• Cards: the annual fee per card, the liability arrangement, the interest-free period or payment terms, and the expense controls available for staff cards.
• Loans and overdrafts: the interest rate together with establishment, line, ongoing and exit fees, the security required, and the repayment flexibility, including redraw, extra repayments and offset.
• Equipment finance: the rate, any balloon or residual, the fees, and the ownership and tax outcome of each structure.

Business products are rarely bought one at a time. Many banks price the account, the cards and the lending as a relationship, and the published rate on a business loan is often a starting point rather than the final offer.